Early writers on bookkeeping were intent upon giving instruction in the bookkeeping practice of the day and indulged in very little theorizing. The writers did not enter into explanations of how transactions should be thought out or why one did thus and so, but confined themselves strictly to telling in detail how to perform the acts of record-keeping. An attempt to formulate the early reasoning involved in analyzing transactions into debits and credits must therefore be hypothesized out of the phraseology used and by trying to read between the lines of the practical explanations of how the record was to be made. Just how that record was first expanded to include impersonal accounts is unknown. But it seems not improbable that the impulse came from traders rather than bankers, although the two occupations merged into each other much more then than now. It seems quite reasonable to aspect that when the use of ledger accounts was extended into trade, the incompleteness of the record would become much more apparent.

During the long evolution of bookkeeping, the teaching process has made use of several methods of approach. By the mid of the nineteenth century, more attention was directed to ledger accounts as a preliminary to analyzing transactions into debits and credits. This was the method wherein the purpose of the usual accounts, and their plus and minus characteristics, formed the ground work of instruction. Modern bookkeeping requirements are becoming increasingly complex within a framework of a methodology which was much more adequate years ago. Students of elementary bookkeeping feel the consequent difficulties, although they do not understand them. After considerable effort they manage to learn against perfectly natural impulses to the contrary that expense is not an asset, and that inventory is not an expense although it consists of purchased goods which, in a purchase account, are treated like expenses. The task is not of teaching procedure, but of teaching ways of thinking about business transactions.

The purpose of the elementary accounting courses given at the Chicago, Illinois-based University of Illinois is to give the students a thorough knowledge of basic transactions and fundamental procedure. Much of the material given in elementary accounting course can be disregarded when an examination is prepared because it represents routine work. Subjects such as, the classification of accounts, the preparation of short financial statements, adjusting entries, closing of the ledger, and books of original entry are included in the first-semester examination. The second-semester course is devoted more to accounting procedure and so for this reason the final examination given in the second semester may be counted upon to have a large number of difficult journal entries covering a wide variety of transactions. The examination for the second semester may include problems such as requiring adjusting entries, where the amount must be calculated as well as entries formulated, requiring the opening of the books of a corporation, or requiring the changing of a single proprietorship or partnership.